Category: Notebook
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For all the writers out there… Links!
Classic story structures and what they can teach us about novel plotting. Infographic: The key book publishing paths. How writer’s workshops can be hostile, by Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen. From Chuck Wendig, a “hot steaming sack of business advice” for writers. John Scalzi explains the concept of the “brain eater,” a danger lurking…
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Stephen King is always appropriate…
Stephen King is one of my favorite writers, so here’s a little thing he wrote about Donald Trump. Here’s the trailer for The Dark Tower, because we need that now. And just for fun, here are pop songs reimagined as Stephen King book covers.
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Why read horror?
I’ve been reading a lot of horror this year. More than I usually do, which was already a large amount. I’ve been feeling the need for extreme escapism. And despite the truism that good horror reflects current societal fears, I still find it very escapist. Recently, I shared this article from Tor about women characters in…
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Cooking again: Classic Southern slaw
I used to cook quite avidly, but interests wax and wane, and lately cooking has seemed like more of a chore than a joy. Or perhaps with the coming of spring, I feel myself coming to life again, and that has rejuvenated an interest in the basic pleasures of life. Whatever the reason, last night…
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Very useful words: Cavil
I’m starting a new occasional feature where I highlight words I’ve recently spotted in the wild that are useful to know. Today’s word is cavil. Cavil (caviling, caviler), a verb, means “to complain about things that are not important” or “to raise trivial and frivolous objections.” Synonyms: carp, quibble, fuss, niggle, nitpick. Cavil is a very useful word because…
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Information overload and the loss of meaning…
One drawback I see in our ability to communicate faster than ever before is that we have become lazy about our language. A word or phrase will suddenly pop up everywhere, and we tend to pick it up and repeat it without really questioning what it means or how it’s being used. See, for example, the term…
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Retreating into reading: The refuge of older books
Lately, I have been turning to older novels for my reading, as a means of escape from the stresses of being alive, here, in 2017. Older books offer a unique form of immersion in another time and place, as actually lived by the writer, rather than as imagined by a writer conjuring up a historical time…
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Inspirations…
The Women’s March was truly inspiring. I took part in my own small way. Our small North Carolina town had 1,500 people turn out. I was gobsmacked, because we are just not that big a town. There were 17,000 people marching in Raleigh. Here are some wonderful photos of the marchers around the world. What…
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Inspirations…
The Women’s March on Washington is what is inspiring me right now. It started out as just an idea following on the surprising election results and has now grown, grassroots-style, into the largest protest and demonstration to take place in response to the inauguration. The march is for everyone, regardless of gender identity, who believes…
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Recommended Reading: The Long and Faraway Gone
The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney follows two characters–only slightly connected–who are both from Oklahoma City and are both struggling to get past unresolved mysteries from their youth. Wyatt, now a private investigator living in Las Vegas, returns to Oklahoma City as a favor for a friend to find out who is harassing a woman…
Shannon Turlington 